My first creek flight, crash, and loss.

Peter Galbavy · Sep 5, 2016

Not sure it helps, but DJI sell a Phantom 4 "body" in the spares section (with battery). The price is not much less than a retail box with RC though: Buy Phantom 4 - Aircraft (Excludes Remote Controller and Battery Charger) | DJI Store

apex1 · Sep 5, 2016

The Trackimo is pretty much useless as far as giving you an outline of where you have flown since the most frequent updates are one minute apart. You can change directions and locations a lot between updates. I don't even turn the app on while I am flying. I simply will rely on it to find my drone if it ever goes down, at which point it is no longer moving so the update should hopefully be close to where the drone is. The small blue circle is where you are, and the flag is where the Trackimo is. It will show 100% battery charge for a couple of days after a full charge. I don't know why you are getting updated readings at this point since they are not waterproof, if your Drone went down in the water. If you are still getting updates, I would follow them because at least your Trackimo is not in the water.

apex1 · Sep 5, 2016

Dragonfly2016 said:
Hard lesson. Get a lesser model used on Craigslist until your skill and experience match your intrepidness

Sent from my XT1585 using PhantomPilots mobile app

So helpful.

Sky Architect · Sep 5, 2016

Pharm said:
Couple more:

4. When you pulled the right stick down, was the bird flying toward the water? More clearly perhaps, If the right stick down had responded instantaneously (theoretically), would the change in direction have been away from the water?

5. How far from the water are the power lines?

I did not see it hit the water, I made a guess based on my location and the estimated trajectory it would have flown. I found the battery where I suspected the drone to hit. It was in a choke point about 2 feet deep in the center of the creek.

I will check into the trackimo soon and see if it's still updating before I go there.

3. I only briefly saw power lines as I was gaining altitude, I tried to go backwards knowing nothing was behind me and also tried to decrease altitude but the upward momentum hit a power line above it. The ones in front were clear as I was hovering and not moving forward.

The power lines were over the creek before the bridge. It would have clipped the front props sending it spiraling downwards throwing the battery out of course and leaving the light plastic drone to be carried away by the heavy currents. I was hoping the props would catch a rock or something but I have come up with nothing.

Like I said, the upwards momentum was too much too late to change it once a line came into view. There were 4 lines on one side going up and one line on the other side on top that I hit.

Sky Architect · Sep 5, 2016

Peter Galbavy said:
Not sure it helps, but DJI sell a Phantom 4 "body" in the spares section (with battery). The price is not much less than a retail box with RC though: Buy Phantom 4 - Aircraft (Excludes Remote Controller and Battery Charger) | DJI Store

It does help thank you. I may end up getting that but I need to build some funds up again. Thanks again though! I will be pulling that trigger soon

Sky Architect · Sep 5, 2016

You can see the starting point and the bridge that I am mentioning here.

frands1 · Sep 5, 2016

Sky Architect said:
Live and learn right? I think I will just save up and buy a brand new p4 about a month from now. Sad but like I said. Hard lesson learned. Don't fly with distractions around and keep mindful of things you can't see. I'll be alot more careful with signal losses too. I wish I had the footage but it had a playback error on my device.

If you manage to retrieve the unit, list in on eBay with all the details about "wet damage". The auction will give you some money for the next rig.
my 2 cents.

Sky Architect · Sep 5, 2016

frands1 said:
If you manage to retrieve the unit, list in on eBay with all the details about "wet damage". The auction will give you some money for the next rig.
my 2 cents.

I didn't know that was a thing. I'm sure with the right chemicals the components could be cleaned up. If possible.

ussvertigo · Sep 5, 2016

As I mentioned before, after putting several in the water, and losing the last one due to deep, murky water, I put a "Getterback" on each leg of my P4, hoping at least one of them would deploy the next time I put her in the water (which is probably inevitable).

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

Sky Architect · Sep 5, 2016

ussvertigo said:
As I mentioned before, after putting several in the water, and losing the last one due to deep, murky water, I put a "Getterback" on each leg of my P4, hoping at least one of them would deploy the next time I put her in the water (which is probably inevitable).

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

Does the getter back tax flight times at all?

Dirty Bird · Sep 5, 2016

No it weighs virtually nothing.

Sky Architect said:
Does the getter back tax flight times at all?

ussvertigo · Sep 5, 2016

They are extremely light, but don't know of much track history with drones, I understand it reacts after certain depths, the float detaches it has 100' of 10lb braided line. I wrote "Reward and phone number" on both. I put two on to increase the chances of deploying and in case one hangs up on the drone during deployment. As cheap as they are I might get another and test. I put a pic of it on a post not to long ago showing how I colored the underside of my props. Should be easy to find. It was dated 8/17.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

kirk2579 · Sep 7, 2016

Sky Architect said:
I had it set for every two minutes but it's still way off from the crash site. My question is why would it say it updated 4 hours after it crashed at someone's house if it's underwater? And wouldn't the battery report be less than 100% normally?

could someone have found it and took home?
don't know but at least that would explain the recent gps hit

AZmtnbkr · Sep 7, 2016

It doesn't sound like you truly searched trackimo's last reported position. If it's at the house that's for sale, contact the realtor and explain your situation. Ask permission to search the yard. It could even landed on the roof. Don't assume its in the water. I bet its dry and at the trackimo's last reported position. Good luck and keep us posted!

Sent from my SM-G930V using PhantomPilots mobile app

apex1 · Sep 8, 2016

Any follow-up to report? Did your Trackimo continue to report after you lost the drone?

Sky Architect · Sep 8, 2016

apex1 said:
Any follow-up to report? Did your Trackimo continue to report after you lost the drone?

FOLLOW UP: No it didn't continue to report and there's no way a phantom flies 400 yards without a battery. The battery ejected itself into the creek below power lines and was found lodged between some rocks. It's weight and relatively small mass kept it from drifting with the current.

I checked at the resident and nothing was found at the "last known" location sadly. So now I'm back to my other many hobbies until I can buy another phantom.

I'll keep on the forums trying to learn and help.

My lessons from this is don't fly angry, don't fly when screaming kids are nearby, be extremely careful when flying outside of vlos. Imagine myself being the drone and visualize it's surroundings.

HOWEVER, I have another question for the more experienced folks... during my take off and normal flight, Flyter was behaving strangely( didn't contribute to my stupidity). When hovering after T/O I proceeded to move forward and he responded as if he was in sports mode. Made an aggressive tilt. So I tapped the stick forward and backwards just barely giving it gas and it had a sports mode tilt.
I was not in sports mode... Okay so next, during my flight, I would just barely be pressing the stick and it would be going 12-16 MPH in p mode... I had to keep going back to neutral position and varying the sensitive throttle. O/A was off, but I doubt that would cause this throttle sensitivity.

Any guesses as to why?

KevMo Photog · Sep 8, 2016

Dang that sucks that you lost it man! Like a guy said earlier, it's really better to go ahead and get the bundle again instead of just bird and battery. Only 100 diff I think and then you have a lot of extra goodies to use or sell later. I had to order another bundle a week ago to replace my lost P4. But I just found my lost one today. I'll be posting the video on where it is real soon. I had a thread called I lost my P4 on here. Good luck on finding it!

Sky Architect · Sep 8, 2016

I remember your thread lol. You lost it behind a building right?

I will replace it just not yet.

KevMo Photog said:
Dang that sucks that you lost it man! Like a guy said earlier, it's really better to go ahead and get the bundle again instead of just bird and battery. Only 100 diff I think and then you have a lot of extra goodies to use or sell later. I had to order another bundle a week ago to replace my lost P4. But I just found my lost one today. I'll be posting the video on where it is real soon. I had a thread called I lost my P4 on here. Good luck on finding it!

It

KevMo Photog · Sep 8, 2016

Sky Architect said:
I remember your thread lol. You lost it behind a building right? I will replace it just not yet.

It

I sure did. I found it today. Maintenance guys went up and looked on the ledge at about 350ft up and sure enough it's sitting right there on a 3ft wide ledge untouched. The wind is even blowing and turning the props as I filmed it from my brand new P4. I'll be posting this video later tonight. Window washers can most likely retrieve it for me in two weeks. How lucky is that! It will have been rained on a couple of times but it might be fine. I'm just worried if it comes up a 40-50mph wind it might possibly blow off this ledge and fall 275ft to another little roof area that is connected to this same building. No danger of it hitting the ground at all. Thank goodness. So today was the first eyes that have seen this drone in 2 1/2 weeks. LOL. So then I flew up and checked it out from a parking garage roof top a block away. I was freaking out as I got up to it and saw the props blowing in the wind.

Noble 1 · Sep 8, 2016

Sky Architect said:
have another question for the more experienced folks... during my take off and normal flight, Flyter was behaving strangely( didn't contribute to my stupidity). When hovering after T/O I proceeded to move forward and he responded as if he was in sports mode. Made an aggressive tilt. So I tapped the stick forward and backwards just barely giving it gas and it had a sports mode tilt.
I was not in sports mode... Okay so next, during my flight, I would just barely be pressing the stick and it would be going 12-16 MPH in p mode... I had to keep going back to neutral position and varying the sensitive throttle. O/A was off, but I doubt that would cause this throttle sensitivity.

Any guesses as to why?

Sounds like you were flying in a wooded area? I've had my p4 act like it was in sports mode. It happened once before. I recall it was very responsive and aggressive to my input on the sticks. I verified I was in the correct flight mode. I set it down immediately and rebooted and waited for GPS safe to fly and as soon as it turned green I heard Siri say Home position has been set. Didn't happen again after that.

I think I took off before home point was set, and without GPS. And my map was showing my old map location 300 miles away... So maybe when you flew in woods GPS glitched... Hard to say

How deep is the water?
I would buy a snorkel and a mask and find a heavy rock and crawl the bottom. Bring a flashlight if it's murky. If your bored... Might cost $50 for the set but you could probably get $400 for parts on eBay. If you washed it with distilled water and alchohol wiped debris from the board it might start up- especially since the battery ejected!

Lesson:
Be cautious when there's anything that appears irregular like this, even the slightest abnormality can spell disaster. It's best to reset and re evaluate the situation, than continue and risk the quad malfunctioning in mid flight. I do a full reset if there's something wrong every time.

Good luck, let me know if you get your dive gear